Author's Note:
Bonus Chapter! I think next summer I will wait to upload the bonus chapter until midweek or right before my weekly chapter. That way more people will feel inclined to review the weekly chapter before the bonus chapter gets uploaded. Let me know your thoughts and preferences!
Also, I have updated my profile with my school year upload and review policies. They take effect starting with this chapter, since there won't be a bonus chapter after Ch 17.
I'm not entirely sold on some of the dialogue in this chapter pertaining to Kieren's nightmare. It's better than it was though, so it will have to do. Aside from that though, I'm pretty happy with this chapter.
Today is 8/9/2015 and this chapter is 2200+ words.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, just dream it.
Chapter 16: What Is It?
"Kieren! Thank goodness you're alright!"
Kieren didn't have a chance to respond before he was clobbered by Melody's overly affectionate embrace.
"Melody! Stop!" the nurse cried. "His face is still pale."
Melody released her embrace, guilt and disappointment masking her face.
"Don't worry. I'm fine," Kieren told them, adjusting back into his former position before Melody's bear hug attack. "Just a nightmare is all." He took the time to glance around the room some more. The room he was in was encased in a glass frame. Around him were several large structures of bizarre shapes, complete with flashing lights and patterns. The walls outside the glass were painted a solid white, along with the ceiling and floor. Kieren himself was lying on something white and soft, a cushion of sorts; almost like a bed it seemed by its size. Kieren looked down to see strange strings of tubes and wires patched to his body and connecting him to the various oddly shaped mechanisms that surrounded him. He turned his gaze back to the woman next to Melody that began unburdening him from the patched wires.
"Nurse Joy," he thought aloud. "I'm in the Pokemon Center, aren't I." He observed as both Melody and the nurse confirmed his hypothesis with a nod. "What time is it?" he asked.
"It's 10:18 in the morning," Melody answered after glancing at something out of Kieren's sight.
"You've been out for three days," the nurse added, guessing Kieren's question from Melody's answer.
"Three days?" Kieren asked astonished. Suddenly his face hardened as he turned to speak. "Melody! We have to go!" He began to stir from his position, but was pinned down by Joy's firm hands.
"Kieren, you just woke up and still need rest," she told him.
"No!" Kieren screamed as he tried to squirm out of the nurse's grasp.
"Let me take care of this," spoke another voice in the human tongue, causing Kieren to stop and turn towards whoever spoke. In front of Kieren now stood a fairly tall beanpole of a figure with brown hair that covered most of his forehead and ears. His face was ever so slightly freckled. He looked to be about 17 or 18, maybe 19 by Kieren's guess.
"If you insist Zach," the nurse answered the teen's request. The name rang through Kieren's head like a jolteon's morning crackle. Was this the guy?
"Is he the warden's son?" Kieren asked Melody.
Melody translated the question to Joy and the teen, who both responded with a nod. Kieren relaxed his limbs, which in result granted him freedom from the nurse's hands. He slowly raised himself up to his feet, taking a stride and a half toward the teen, staring up and the human he desired to meet ever since he knew the name.
"There, there," said the human in a soft half-whisper as he placed his hands on Kieren's back and gently seated the eevee. He then began to stroke the fur along Kieren's back methodically and lethargically causing Kieren to close his eyes in confort. "Eevee expert" couldn't do justice to the magical fingers the human possessed.
"Now, tell me about this nightmare of yours," the human spoke to the eevee. After a sudden pause of thought, Kieren's eyes blasted open in shock.
"H-how…did you know…I had a…"
"Relax, Kieren" Zach answered while trying to calm the eevee again. "I was born and raised surrounded by your kind. The language came naturally. Now tell me about your dream. You seemed quite shaken from it."
The back massage resumed as Kieren quickly made sense of the situation and shifted his thoughts back to the terrifying event of his past. He drooped his head, recalling how fragile he was during the moments when his life had been nearly taken.
"Was it the time you were attacked?" Melody softly proposed.
Kieren nodded, somewhat relieved by how well his friend understood him.
"You're the next Bluestripe," Zach spoke softly as well. Kieren nodded again. He gave up questioning this Zach kid, although he was answered anyways. "Melody told me the story, and it happened to be one I already knew." Kieren lied down upon dwelling on the story that had scarred him for life. "Kieren," Zach continued in his soft voice. "As hard as it is, you need to stop dwelling on what they did to you. Focus on the bravery you found then. After all, your skill and courage even back then was the reason you survived." Kieren opened one eye and stared at the human. Suddenly he felt like questioning him again. Sure he took out the flareon at the start, but after that he was helplessly torn to pieces, and that was after he failed to climb the rock wall leading to his escape. The massage continued, lulling Kieren's eye back closed as the teen explained himself. "The way you took down that flareon was incredible for such a young eevee at the time. Then went the vaporeon and…"
"Vaporeon?" Kieren asked, slowly opening his eyes.
"Yes. And two eevee on top," Zach answered, delivering a trace of excitement and praise in his quiet voice.
Kieren closed his eyes once again. He recalled the same scene, this time remembering the large mass he threw off of him and slammed into the rocks. He could see the vaporeon clearly, unable to fight, and the eevee next to him with the same fate, pinned underneath the vaporeon. That was when he began to retreat.
"I even made a foolish promise to myself that I would one day train you to incredible potential. I even had a pokeball in hand as you were pushed off the cliff."
"You were there?" Kieren asked in astonishment.
"Yes. My father drove you here to the Pokemon Center. I helped ensure you made it." Zach reached over onto a nearby machine and grabbed a book he must have set on it. He slowly flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He showed the page to Kieren. It was a photograph of Zach, Nurse Joy, a flareon, and a patched up eevee. Kieren knew he was that eevee, covered in stitches and bandages. He was right three days ago when he felt a familiarity with the Pokemon Center. The memories he once believed were dreams returned to him. He focused more closely on the flareon he somehow recognized.
"Grandpa."
Kieren heard Melody stir at his word.
Zach nodded in confirmation. "He planned on visiting you again, but lately he's been busy with Flint tracking down a criminal organization that has popped up lately."
Kieren stood up to obtain a closer view of the photograph. He studied the figures intently, trying to bring the scene to life in his head. Finally he looked down and shook his head.
"It's not me," he mumbled. He allowed his body to crash down again on the bed, despair painted over his face as he stared aimlessly at the adjacent machine with its flashing lights and patterns.
"What are you talking about? Kieren?" Melody interjected.
"I'm talking about why we even came out of the reserve," Kieren answered solemnly. He exhaled deeply, trying to relax the frustration that was beginning to boil in his mind. He then felt the hands of the teen enwrap him and suddenly he was no longer being supported by the bed. He looked up to see he was being cradled up by the teen's arms. Somehow the feeling felt familiar, like it had happened before in his life. As if by muscle memory he allowed his head to rest against the teen's chest, tucking his ears against his cheeks.
"You used to always curl up like this after you woke up in the Pokemon Center," Zach spoke, reflecting on the past. More memories once thought as dreams returned to him, now with clarity. A soft whimper escaped with Kieren's breath as he sighed in comfort of the memories he had with the much younger Zach. "It helped you relax and look past your nightmares. Even back then, I knew the perfect evolution for you when it was your time."
That last part caught Kieren's attention. He lifted his head and perked his ears, now focusing his gaze at Zach's eyes.
"Climb up," Zach instructed him.
Kieren did as he was instructed, leaping up onto Zach's shoulder. Kieren knew this was his moment. What had been nagging him ever since the morning he received the letter from Melody was now about to unfold before him. He had no doubt Zach knew the perfect solution. Zach had seen the best of him even in his nightmare.
"Do you see that sack sticking out of my backpack?" Zach asked with the same instructing tone.
"Uh huh," Kieren confirmed as he focused his gaze at the cream colored bag tied shut by a small brown rope.
"That's yours," Zach told the eevee. Kieren turned back to Zach, in near disbelief. "Go on, take it."
Kieren turned back to the small sack and pulled it out of the crater formed by the encompassing zippers of the backpack. With a solid grip on the parcel Kieren steadied himself and hopped back down onto the bed where he placed the sack in front of him. He then turned back to Zach in appreciation.
"Well go ahead. Open it," Zach urged the staring eevee.
Kieren did so, grabbing the rope and sliding it off the sack with a good yank. He then lifted the bottom end of the bag and watched to see its contents pour out. What came out surprised him.
"What is it?" Melody asked, curiously leaning towards the object. Kieren had never seen anything like it before. It was stone-like in build and ruggedness but it was much flatter than the typical evolution stone. As he moved closer to get a better view, he suddenly saw a flash reflect off the stone from the room's lighting. Not only did he see the flash, but he also believed he had seen a pattern in the light. He shifted back in an attempt to confirm or disprove his theory.
"Whoa!" Kieren jumped after seeing the image of the moon form on the surface of the rock.
"That's a moon shard," Zach explained, kneeling down and placing his hand on Kieren's back. Like before, Kieren lied down and allowed the teen to message his fur. "It has been a long time since our family has found an eevee from the reserve suited for one of these." He picked up the shard in his hand and brought it close to Kieren.
"No! Not yet!" Melody screeched, causing Kieren to look up and Zach to turn. "You must wait until the Alpha Evelescence!"
Zach just laughed and brought the shard against Kieren's skin that wrapped his front limbs. Kieren closed his eyes. Melody turned away…
Nothing happened.
Kieren opened his eyes to find the shard sitting on his paws where he had a closer view of the fragmented rock. He then noticed partly folded underneath sat a scarlet string that looped its way through the back corner of the stone.
Melody opened her eyes to see the teenager hang the lunar ornament around Kieren's neck.
"Hold onto it," Zach instructed. The ornament began to sink into Kieren's neck fur as Zach removed his hand. "You will have to battle with it before it will take effect."
"And what will he become?" Melody asked curiously.
Zach chuckled to himself. "I guess you'll have to find out."
Kieren closed his eyes again. He still didn't know what he was going to evolve into, but he no longer cared. Zach knew, and that was all that mattered. Zach had saved him from his fatal nightmare years ago. Kieren had nothing to worry about. He breathed deep breaths and let all his tension escape from his mind. His business was done. Now he could just relax on this bed and…
Suddenly reality smacked Kieren in the face as other thoughts entered his head. He had been so concerned about his early past and the time he shared with Zach that he had ignored the fact that he was in a Pokemon Center and had been out for three days! Those details were probably pretty significant!
"So what happened to me?" Kieren asked amidst the silence.
"Are you talking about your nightmare or you getting pegged by a golf ball?" Melody asked.
"I was hit by a golf ball?" Kieren asked astonished.
"Long story short, Melody's father didn't have a very good shot from the fairway of the sixteenth," Zach jokingly explained.
"Really?" Kieren asked in disbelief.
"Yep," Zack answered, "Shanked 'er pretty good."
"Made me feel a lot better about my performance when I found that out," Melody added.
"Wait, why was your father golfing?" Kieren asked while trying to keep up with the conversation.
"Business," Melody answered.
"A better question: Who thought taking Mason golfing was a good idea?" Zach joked. Everyone in the room enjoyed a hearty laugh before the conversation drifted to other topics, easing the day away as Kieren recovered from his injury. Quickly the conversation shifted towards city things and Kieren felt himself falling out of place. Slowly his mind began to drift and before he even realized sleep was taking hold of him he had already dozed off.
Author's Note:
Your fate has been chosen!
Arc 1 will be complete by the end of the summer!
Be sure to leave a review, as it will go towards next summer and will be a good reference in case I run into writer's block during the school year.
Enjoy these last couple of weeks of summer! ~Dreaming I'm Latios